Work Text:
The blonde pirate awoke chained up to a wall and cold fury went through him as he recalled the past hours. His ship had been attacked by the Portuguese, and many of his men had been slaughtered. Some coward must have caught him off guard, and hit him from behind. Arthur sighed in irritation he assessed the situation. Scanning the cell, he saw no windows, and the only light came from a dim lantern. Scowling, he leaned his head back onto the wall, and closed his eyes. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed when he heard a lock turn and the door creak open.
Lifting his head, he glared at the person who entered the room. The other, barely even a man, almost a boy, kept his eyes on the ground in what seemed to be shame.
“Lo siento,” the boy said, “but this was all I could get.”
Holding up his hand to the pirate, he showed that he had some bread with him. The Englishman eyed him warily. Never in his life had he ever see, or heard, of being kind to a prisoner.
“Did you poison it? Because I’ll tell you right now, that wouldn’t be a smart thing to do, lad.”
He stated bluntly. The other raised his head finally and looked the pirate in the eyes.
“Why would I poison you? I already feel like shit because of what my brother’s done to you and your men, why would I even want to harm you anymore?”
The boy’s face was red in shame, and he shook slightly in fear.
Quickly, he returned his gaze back to the floor as he waited for the other man’s response. Arthur tried to find something that would give away the boy’s lies, but he found nothing. In the end, he figured it didn’t matter if the food was poisoned or not, because he was starving.
“Well unless you plan on unshackling me, I’ll need help eating.”
He smirked up at the other. The boy glanced back to the door and when he was sure that there was no one coming, he moved closer and kneeled in front of Arthur. Silently, he held the piece of bread to the pirate’s lips, their eyes once again meeting. Arthur opened his mouth and took a bite, his face thoughtful as he chewed.
“I wasn’t aware that Enrique had a brother.” He said once he had swallowed his food, referring to the Portuguese captain. The boy looked down pursed his lips.
“He doesn’t really consider me his brother, and if it was up to me, I wouldn’t even claim to share his blood. But he claimed me, and that’s all anyone cares about.” Arthur noted that the boy had less of the accent that his brother did. His was different, more Spanish, and that interested even more so.
“So, what is your name, lad?” He asked while leaning forward to take another bite. The boy glanced up to answer softly with, “Antonio,” before averting his eyes again.
Arthur swallowed the mouthful that he had, and looked back up to the other.
“Antonio, huh? Well, it’s a pleasure to meet your acquaintance, my name’s Arthur Kirkland.”
The Spaniard just looked at him through his lashes and nodded muttering a quiet, “I know.” Raising a brow, the Brit gave him a questioning look.
“You do, eh? How so?”
The boy fidgeted slightly and sighed. “You’re the one person in the world that my brother’s ever lost to. He hates your guts. How the hell wouldn’t I know who you are?”
His voice had grown bitter while talking of his brother and this didn’t go unnoticed by Arthur. Deciding to not comment on it, he opened his mouth, signaling that he wanted another bite. The next few minutes were spent in silence, with the occasional sound of chewing breaking it. All too soon, the bread was finished and the Spaniard was getting up to leave.
“Wait a second.” Arthur said, slight irritation in his voice, “Why’re you leaving so soon?”
Antonio pursed his lips down at the other and let out a sigh.
“I can’t let anyone find out that I fed you. I don’t feel like getting punished.” He shuddered at the word, and the pirate captain frowned, but again decided to no say anything. Figuring that signaled the end of what the other had to say, Antonio went to the door, and left quickly, the lock clicking after him. Arthur continued to stare at the door, wondering if that had been his last meal. He chuckled at the thought and shook his head. ‘No. I’ll be seeing the boy again. I can tell’ and with those words running through his mind, he tilted his head back and closed his eyes.
Days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months, and what Arthur had thought was true. The boy came to him every night, bringing what little food he could, and slowly he began talking to the pirate, making the Brit have something to look forward to. The day started the same as the others and soon blonde man felt himself growing eager to see the boy, and had his eyes remained trained on the door. Time passed, but the Spaniard never showed. Frowning to himself, he jumped when the door opened.
“It’s about bloody ti—“ He stopped midsentence when he saw who was standing in the doorway.
“Expecting someone?” Enrique purred in amusement to the other captain, brow raising slightly and walking over to him. Arthur stared at him, his mind racing trying to figure out where the boy was.
“Of course not.” He scoffed, feeling his blood run cold at the smirk that crossed the others lips.
“Don’t worry. My brothers been dealt with. You don’t have to worry about him bothering you anymore.” He chuckled and approached Arthur, drawing his blade.
“I, on the other hand, have been neglecting my guest. How rude of me.” He smirked and without blinking, flicked his wrist and slashed a shallow cut on Arthur’s cheek. The blonde pirate growled in anger, causing the other to grin wider.
“Don’t worry, I’ll pay closer attention to you now.” While he began to repeatedly cut, stab, and kick Arthur, all the pirate could think was, ‘What happened to the lad?’
Arthur stared blearily at the walls of his cell, thoughts of the boy running through his head. Had he been killed? Or had he his punishment been worse than death? These thoughts got him nowhere; only caused him to become angrier at his captor. He wasn’t sure how long it had been since the other man had left him, bloody and beaten, in his cell.
‘If he thinks that I’ll be easily broken, he’s sadly mistaken.’ He thought to himself darkly. As time went by the only thing that he found himself focusing on was his anger, although the pain was slowly creeping into the center of his thoughts. Glancing around his prison, he tried to figure out a way to escape. The answer came to him later when he saw that the boy had accidentally left one of the eating utensils behind. Stretching his leg out, he tried to move it closer to himself.
It took a couple of hours, but he finally managed to get the fork close enough to grab it with one of the hands behind his back. Glancing to the door, he worked as quickly as he could to pick the locks, and smirked when he heard the telltale click. Standing up, he winced at his wounds, and worked out the knots that had formed in his limbs from being chained up for as long as he’d been. As he made his way to the door, he was pleasantly surprised to find that it had been left unlocked. ‘Bloody idiots.’ He thought to himself, ‘Something like this would never happen on my ship.’ Scoffing quietly to himself, he silently made his way down the hall, quickly finding the stairs that led out of the brig.
Climbing them, he peeked out onto the deck and was glad to see that it was night time. Cautiously, he made his way across the deck, wondering where they would keep the lad. As he began his search, he found a sword and took it.
After nearly fifteen minutes of looking, he heard the sobs. There, behind one of the many crates, laid Antonio. Tied up, bruised, and crying softly, he looked the picture of a broken boy. Kneeling beside him, he frowned when the other jumped at his touch.
“Shh, I’m here to help you, lad. Try to be quiet.” Arthur whispered, looking over his shoulder to make sure no one was coming. Antonio shook, staring up at the pirate with wide eyes.
“H-how did you get out?” He finally managed to say, keeping still as the Englishman cut the ropes off of him.
“I’ll tell you later. Right now, you need to show me where the boats are.” Grasping onto the other's arm, he hauled him up, and steadied him. The boy nodded and turned to walk further down the side of the ship. Glancing around warily, Arthur followed after him.